Transcendental Étude no. 10 in f minor by Liszt
Ester L.
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Liszt's Transcendental Étude no. 10 is dramatic and challenging, nicknamed "Appassionata". This piece, unlike all of my previous repertoire, took me three years to get my final recording. It challenged me, frustrated me, felt like it hated me and I certainly hated it back. I felt despair just by learning the first two measures, which were somehow always choppy, uneven, and awkward. The recording process was more than draining as well. It drained me emotionally, every time I would make my first mistake at the very end, or play perfectly and find that my phone had already ran out of battery long ago. It drained me physically - my forearms are now stronger than ever. It drained my body of sweat. It drained my eyes of tears. It drained my savings when I broke my friends' piano strings on three separate occasions playing the climax. However, the sense of satisfaction of my achievements with this piece have been incomparable to all others. Not only was it physically demanding by forcing me to bring out more sound, but musically, I had to struggle with maintaining an aggressive, unrelenting feel while overcoming all the technical challenges and sounding out the melody in a fluid manner. This Étude taught me patience and perseverance, becoming my outlet and release for frustrations as I matured. I now look back on this piece as one of my biggest accomplishments and a milestone in my artistic journey.
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To me, creativity means a form of expression that is original and unorthodox. It involves thought and opinion. These unique, personal expressions of ideas are essential to art, of which I believe is simply the application of creative power that often inspires people's thoughts and ways of life.
